Girl Last Seen

by Nina Laurin

Overview

An intense psychological thriller for readers of I Am Watching You,The Luckiest Girl Alive, and All the Missing Girls.

Two missing girls. Thirteen years apart.

Olivia Shaw has been missing since last Tuesday. She was last seen outside the entrance of her elementary school in Hunts Point wearing a white spring jacket, blue jeans, and pink boots.

I force myself to look at the face in the photo, into her slightly smudged features, and I can't bring myself to move. Olivia Shaw could be my mirror image, rewound to thirteen years ago.

If you have any knowledge of Olivia Shaw's whereabouts or any relevant information, please contact...

I've spent a long time peering into the faces of girls on missing posters, wondering which one replaced me in that basement. But they were never quite the right age, the right look, the right circumstances. Until Olivia Shaw, missing for one week tomorrow.

Whoever stole me was never found. But since I was taken, there hasn't been another girl.

And now there is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455569021
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	06/20/2017
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	127,409
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Nina Laurin studied Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal, where she currently lives. She arrived there when she was just twelve years old, and she speaks and reads in Russian, French, and English but writes her novels in English. She wrote her first novel while getting her writing degree, and Girl Last Seen was a bestseller a year later in 2017.


Nina is fascinated by the darker side of mundane things, and she's always on the lookout for her next twisted book idea. Learn more at NinaLaurin.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/10/2017
Laine Moreno, the traumatized narrator of Laurin’s emotionally powerful but plot-challenged debut thriller, is barely managing to sleepwalk through her solitary existence in Seattle a decade after being freed from three years of horror at the hands of a captor who was never caught. Then the highly publicized disappearance of 10-year-old girl Olivia Shaw gives her a jolt. Although the missing girl comes from privilege, a world away from Laine’s precarious childhood with a junkie single mom, their physical resemblance is startling enough to suggest to Laine that their cases might be connected. The same notion strikes Det. Sean Ortiz, one of the two cops who initially discovered Laine by the edge of a deserted road. All too swiftly, Laine’s efforts to help save Olivia start to threaten both her tenuous stability and her life itself. Laurin creates a compelling, vulnerable central character, but Det. Ortiz and several members of the supporting cast function largely as devices to propel a story arc ultimately more clever than convincing. Agent: Rachel Eckstrom, Irene Goodman Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Every good thriller has a shocking plot twist. Girl Last Seen has many. Author Nina Laurin's eerie novel will stay with you for days, months, even years to come."—HelloGiggles.com

Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin is a chilling suspense about two missing girls whose stories intertwine — perfect for Paula Hawkins fans."—EliteDaily.com

"A well-written and compelling novel that offers more than suspense; it offers a deeper understanding of how sexual assault can leave its victims broken. Ms. Laurin is to be congratulated for her achievement."—NYJournalofBooks.com

"4 Stars! This debut novel is a gritty thriller with dark twists you won't see coming. The heart breaking, heart-racing journey...will keep you guessing to the nail-biting end."—TheSuspenseIsThrillingMe.com

"Debut novelist Nina Laurin has created a memorable character in complicated, flawed and endearing Laine Moreno. From the very first page, Girl Last Seen jettisons the reader into the life of a crime victim trying to outrun her past. Fast-paced and hard-edged, it is a heart-stopping thriller that had me guessing to the very end."—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Not a Sound

"Girl Last Seen gripped me from start to finish. Lainey Moreno is a riveting heroine, a kidnapping survivor who will only escape her demons if she faces her greatest fears, and Nina Laurin brings her vividly to life. Psychological suspense doesn't come much grittier or more packed with satisfying twists and turns."—Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author of Unsub

"Girl Last Seen hooked me so quickly I might have whiplash. This is a sharp, twisting, intense thriller, the heartbreaking and fast-paced story of a woman who bears the scars of a trip to hell and back but who refuses to be defeated. Don't miss this smashing debut!"—David Bell, bestselling author of Bring Her Home

"Laurin creates a compelling, vulnerable central character."—Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

2017-04-04
A decade after escaping from a kidnapper who held her prisoner for three years, a young woman must face the reality that he's taken another little girl.Thirteen years ago, Ella Santos existed. Now that girl is gone, replaced by Lainey Moreno, an acerbic woman who subsists on cigarettes and whatever pills she can find, trying desperately to forget the years she spent locked in a basement with the man who raped her. Until she sees a missing poster for 10-year-old Olivia Shaw, privileged where Lainey was poor, loved where Lainey was neglected. Improbably, the detective on the case is Sean Ortiz, the traffic cop who found Lainey the day she got away, the only one who doesn't think Lainey is broken beyond repair. The refrain—and it becomes an almost literal one throughout the increasingly predictable narrative—that Lainey believes she is worthless but Sean sees her potential grows tiresome, as do the allegedly shocking but actually humdrum revelations about Lainey's past and her connections to Olivia. Laurin, in her debut, tries for psychological depth by sidestepping the victim role for her heroine—an admirable choice—but instead plonks her in the decidedly less interesting resigned-vigilante camp, where her sense of agency disappears as fast as the pills she swallows. It's not challenging to root for a character who's damaged, but it is hard to find common ground with someone who's constantly negating her own self-worth in place of an actual plot.

Kirkus Reviews